Analysis of Fiddler Jones

Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)



The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.
What do you see, a harvest of clover?
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
For beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts
Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.
To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;
They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy
Stepping it off to 'Toor-a-Loor.'
How could I till my forty acres
Not to speak of getting more,
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos
Stirred in my brain by crows and robins
And the creak of a wind-mill--only these?
And I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take me away to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle--
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a single regret.


Scheme ABCDEEFGHIJKLEMNFOPDQRMCPS
Poetic Form
Metre 011101010 10110111 0101011110 110111111 1111010110 1011111010 010011111 1101010110 111101011 1011101101 1101001011 110111001 111111110 10111101 111111010 1111101 101011101 101111010 0011011101 01101011011 111111001 0110110111 110111010 1101101010 001010010100 0101001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 994
Words 195
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 762
Words per stanza (avg) 192
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

58 sec read
167

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist. more…

All Edgar Lee Masters poems | Edgar Lee Masters Books

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